Meditation: How it can help your health

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Evans Caglage/Staff Photographer

“You’ll see more of your blessings with a little more inner peace,” through meditation, says Ruben Habito. A labyrinth used for meditation has been named for him at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.

That — more than peanut butter sandwiches, more than protein drinks, more than his support crew — is what sustains him through miles and hours of dust and rocks, of blisters and monotony.

“I focus on my legs, my breathing, my body, my feet, my surroundings,” says Conner, 41, who plans to run his second 100-mile race on Saturday. “I try to meditate the entire time as I’m running.”

Meditation takes many forms. Whether moving, being alone or sharing the experience with a group, this age-old practiceof quiet contemplation and focus on breathinghas been embraced by Oprah, prescribed by doctors and quietly incorporated into countless daily routines. It’s credited with physical, emotional and mental benefits that are scientific as well as anecdotal.

Among recent findings:

A Natural Medicine and Prevention study found that people with heart disease who were taught to practice transcendental meditation reduced the occurrence of death, heart attack and stroke by 48 percent.

After eight weeks of practicing mindful meditation, participants in a study at Massachusetts General Hospital made “measurable changes” in regions of the brain associated with memory, empathy, stress and sense of self.

At Texas Tech University, researchers found that smokers who underwent meditation training cut back on smoking by 60 percent.

A Psychology Today comparison of exercise and meditation concluded that using both will enhance and strengthen “the largest possible number of different brain areas. This will result in an enriched long-term memory, laser-sharp attention as well as a sparkling mood.”

Other studies have shown meditation to reduce anxiety and depression, improve sleep and manage pain.

“I’m not surprised that non-pharmacological therapy can help a multitude of ailments,” says Dr. Mark Millard, medical director of the Martha Foster Lung Care Center at Baylor University Medical Center Dallas, “because we are more than just cooperating, symbiotically linked cells.”

True meditation isn’t wishful thinking, he says. Instead, it immerses us in the substance of what we value.

“You just feel naturally more balanced and more wholesome and your blood pressure is decreased and you don’t get caught up in anger,” says Ruben L.F. Habito, professor of world religions and spirituality at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology.

“You’ll see more of your blessings with a little more inner peace,” says Habito, who asks his students to meditate for the first five minutes of every class. “It’s not just physical health but overall well-being.”

Plus, say those who practice it, meditation just makes life not necessarily easier, but easier to take.

“You begin to understand meditation is not an escape from the world,” says Leila Cranford, 41, who leads a meditation class every Sunday at Inspire Yoga studio in Highland Village. “It’s a way for me to learn to deal with the world. I’m still human.”

As humans, and especially Americans, we want to be in control, she says. We want results; we want to fix some things and to scratch others off a list. But meditation doesn’t work that way. To be effective, it’s not separate from the rest of life. Instead, practicing it carries over into all aspects.

“The irony is that we don’t meditate expecting results,” Cranford says. “That idea in itself, letting go of expectations, that is the training. So when you adapt that to everyday life, you begin to let go of things. You just allow it. You abide with it.”

Her hourlong sessions might focus on breathing, which is the basis for meditation.

Habito elaborates: “If we’re harried or ungrounded or unsure of ourselves, we find ourselves catching our breath. Meditation is truly, in that sense, catching up with our breath, letting ourselves become attuned to the breath. It gives us life. It gives us well-being.”

Breathing helps our minds to be calm, he says, “not to achieve or analyze anything; just be aware.”

That can be done while sitting as well as during the walking meditations he often leads.

“We continue being mindful of every breath and of every step,” says Habito, who also leads students around the Perkins labyrinth that bears his name. After going to its center, “we go back to the world to offer what we’ve received.”

Cranford’s sessions often include walking as well.

“We walk and it’s not walking to a particular destination,” she says. “It’s a lovely organic thing. In a group, the paces are very fluid. They get larger, they get smaller. It’s like life. It changes and is fluid and regulates and eventually settles where it needs to settle.”

Running or walking meditations are “a great way to focus on the moment,” says Conner, who lives in McKinney. “I found that’s one of the best meditation techniques for me. People run because they want to meditate. They don’t realize it, but it helps clear their mind. You’re focused on your body.”

Conner, who has meditated ever since an art teacher in elementary school taught students relaxation techniques, practices continual meditation: communicating with co-workers, during twice-daily quiet times at home, and when he runs.

“It’s not the reward, it’s the journey that counts,” he says. “That’s why I do ultra marathoning. I don’t think about the end. That’s why it’s OK for me to be doing 100 miles because I’m every step, I’m every breath. I’m looking at the trees, squirrels, people.

“The goal is basically to take your thoughts and give them something to do. Your thoughts are random, like clouds. They’re constantly flowing by. Basically, meditation is your way of letting the clouds pass. You notice, but you don’t pay attention. You pay attention to something else.”

Millard, a triathlete, initially says no when asked whether he meditates. Then he rethinks the question.

“When I run by myself in the early morning and the sun paints the morning sky a brilliant palette of indescribable beauty,” he says, “I find myself so enraptured as to forget whatever aches or pains I’ve been afflicted with and enter a state of thankfulness, if not bliss. Is that meditation?”

HOW TO MEDITATE

There are various kinds of meditation. But at its most basic, meditation means paying attention to the breath, to listen, to be still, says Ruben L.F. Habito of Perkins School of Theology.

“It can be as short as one breath at a time,” he says. “Before you go to the next email, stop and be still and take a deep breath, and that can give you a new gust of energy and relaxation. If you’re sitting at your computer and need to get your coffee at the other end of the room, take a deep breath as you do so, and that can make a big difference in the way you appreciate your coffee.

“Let that breath give you a sense of, ‘It’s OK.’ You don’t have to rush rush rush all the time.”

Here are more tips on how to begin making meditation part of your life.

Get comfortable. Pick a chair or a cushion or a bench outdoors. Turn off the radio; set your ear buds aside. Close the door.

Pay attention to your breathing. Breathe in, breathe out with full attention and presence, Habito says.

Allow your mind to be still. “Do nothing. Don’t try to figure out your schedule for the day,” Habito says. “This isn’t a time to analyze or achieve anything. Don’t try to conjure up memories. It’s not about thinking; it’s not about thinking about nothing either. Just be aware.”

Keep coming back. Your mind will drift; everyone’s does, says Leila Cranford, who leads a weekly meditation session in Flower Mound. “Come back 100 times, come back 1,000 times. Even people who are respected instructors all acknowledge that the mind wanders. The training is in learning how to abide with that, with all the disturbances.”

Try to be consistent. “If you meditate in the same place, you tend to bring up the same energy,” Conner says.

“A five-minute practice on a daily basis will be so much more beneficial than a two-hour practice on weekends,” Cranford says.

LEARN MORE

If you feel more comfortable learning meditation from approachable experts, here are groups and facilities around the Dallas area offering low-key classes:

Dallas Meditation Center. Ongoing classes and seminars in various types of meditation are held in this Richardson location: dallasmeditationcenter.com

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